Ellis hits for 26 points off the bench to lead Silver Bandits

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2000 | 10:14 a.m.

The Las Vegas Silver Bandits were trying for their third consecutive victory on Thursday night without Isaac Burton, the team's second-leading scorer and top assist man.

As it turned out, they didn't need him.

Harold Ellis poured in a team-high 26 points off the bench in 22 minutes to help the Silver Bandits to a 111-96 victory over the Baltimore BayRunners at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The victory improved the Silver Bandits to 17-11 while dropping the BayRunners to 9-17. The Bandits have won 14 of their last 15 games.

Ellis' performance was not surprising to Las Vegas head coach Rolland Todd, who was named the International Basketball League's coach of the month for January.

"That's his job," Todd said. "He's had 26, 29 and 22 coming off the bench.

"That's why we like him. He raises the level of intensity."

J.R. Henderson and Rocky Walls each had 21 points for Las Vegas. Burton, the IBL's player of the month for January, missed the game to be with his ailing father.

Without him, the Silver Bandits employed an aggressive defense that forced the BayRunners to shoot 39.3 percent from the field and held the team to two points below its scoring average.

The best defensive job was done on Baltimore' Rodney Elliot.

Elliot entered the game averaging 16.3 points. The Silver Bandits contested almost every one of his shots and forced the former Maryland star to miss all eight of his 3-point attempts en route to eight points.

"We really had to play well and win it for Isaac," Ellis said. "We definitely had to play better defensively because he is a good defensive player.

"All of our coaches stress defense. We tried to really hold them in the second half because we realized that if they start scoring on us, they are going to win it."

Las Vegas used a 10-3 third-quarter run to take an 85-66 lead into the fourth.